


Of Coffee and Broken Noses

by ellebeedarling



Series: Christmas 2017 [6]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Chance Meeting, Christmas Fluff, Gift Fic, M/M, Modern AU, another tropey christmas fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 11:03:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13122393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellebeedarling/pseuds/ellebeedarling
Summary: John crashes, literally, into the man of his dreams.**Pure silly fluff!





	Of Coffee and Broken Noses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FallingOverSideways](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallingOverSideways/gifts).



> For my beloved shotce! 
> 
> Girl! I don't think words can express how much I've come to love you over this last year! I'm forever grateful to AO3 and Tumblr bringing you into my life. You're stuck with me forever!! Merry Christmas my darling!!! xoxoxo

John paid his diner tab and headed for the door, trying to stuff his phone and wallet back into his jacket while juggling his doggy bag and cup of coffee. The door opened, and he felt the stiff breeze against his bare neck before he could get his scarf wrapped back around it. In the midst of all his own personal chaos, he didn’t notice the dark haired stranger rushing in out of the cold until they’d collided. 

 

John’s leftovers hit the floor with a splat, coffee sloshing all over both of them, and he smashed his nose on the stranger’s head when they both bent down to retrieve their wallets at the same time. He felt the warm trickle of blood on his lip and began looking around frantically for a napkin to staunch the flow while the man apologized profusely. 

 

His waitress rounded the counter with a wad of tissue that she thrust toward him as she sighed and began cleaning up the mess. He was pretty sure he heard her mutter, “Idiots,” under her breath, and sort of wished he’d given her a smaller tip. Accidents were bound to happen after all. 

 

“I’m so sorry,” the man told him for the hundredth time, and John waved away his concern as he glanced around to make sure all his things were accounted for. When he finally let himself meet the stranger’s gaze, all the oxygen vacated his lungs, the building, the city, even the planet, probably. 

 

“Uh,” he sad eloquently, but the man hardly seemed to notice the fact that heaven and earth had stopped spinning in their orbit. And wasn’t that a disappointment.

 

“I’m a doctor,” the man said. “Mind if I take a look? I want to make sure it’s not broken.” 

 

John shrugged and removed the tissue, frowning when the man winced. 

 

“It’s already swelling and turning blue. Shit! I’m so sorry! Let me get you back to my office, and I can patch that up for you.” 

 

“You don’t-” John began, voice already sounding thin and nasally.

 

“I insist. I should have been watching where I was going. Can I buy you another cup of coffee?” 

 

“No it’s-” 

 

“Miss, could you please get him another cup?” the stranger - the doctor - went on obliviously, pulling a twenty out of his pocket and plopping it on the counter. “Keep the change,” he muttered as the waitress handed him the fresh cup of coffee and a to go order that had obviously been waiting for him. “Come on. I’ll get us a cab.” 

 

John followed in the doctor’s wake feeling slightly shell shocked. The wind had picked up and cut through his jacket, leaving him shivering. He wanted to huddle in on himself, but every time he tried, the doctor reminded him to tilt his head back to help with the blood flow. 

 

_ Son of a bitch _ , he thought. This guy was sexy as hell, but he sure was bossy. 

 

Snow began drifting down in big, fat flakes that clung to their hair and coats. The cab arrived just then, and John gratefully scuttled inside of it, pulling his jacket more tightly around him and leaning his head on the seat back. The doctor gave the cabbie the address, and the car lurched into the slow stream of traffic that was steadily dwindling as the evening wore on. 

 

The ride to the clinic was silent, but John could feel the man fidgeting nervously beside him. He didn’t really know what to say to ease the man’s concerns however. He  _ was _ sitting in the back of a taxicab with a potentially broken nose. It wasn’t entirely the doctor’s fault; John had been equally distracted.

 

Instead of worrying over what to say, he stared out the window as the city’s Christmas lights began to twinkle and glow in the waxing twilight. Lyrics to old Christmas songs came to mind, jumbling themselves up so that he couldn’t remember which ones went where. The sentiment warmed him though. 

 

Soon the cab stopped, and the pair of them stepped up to a door with a festive wreath hanging on it. “Dr. K. Alenko” was painted in gold letters on the glass front. 

 

“Dr. Alenko is it?” 

 

“Uh… yeah… that’s me,” the man said rubbing the back of his neck. “And you are?” 

 

“Shepard,” he said, thrusting his hand out. “John Shepard.” 

 

“Nice to meet you, John Shepard. The K stands for Kaidan,” he offered, shaking John’s hand.

 

John chuckled lightly and followed Kaidan as he flipped on a few lights leading back toward an exam room. He watched the doctor wash his hands and pull on a pair of gloves. 

 

“Alright,” Dr. Alenko began, stepping right into John’s personal space. “Let me take a look at what we’ve got here.” 

 

Kaidan was gorgeous, John couldn’t help noticing. His eyes took in every one of Dr. Alenko’s striking features, from his whiskey-brown eyes to his five o’clock shadow, from the three large freckles above his right eyebrow to the thin scar that bisected his plump lips. He swallowed, lost in the thought of what those lips would taste like. 

 

He was suddenly and violently yanked back into reality as the doctor prodded along the bridge of his nose and he saw stars. “Shit!” he hissed, instinctively jerking his head back out of the man’s reach.

 

“Sorry,” Kaidan said sheepishly. “It’s definitely broken. Let me clean it up and then I can set and tape it for you.” 

 

“You don’t-”

 

“Please,” Kaidan said softly. “I feel terrible.” 

 

It was at least the third time tonight Kaidan had cut him off before he could get a word in edgewise, but the pleading in those brown eyes did him in. “Okay,” he mumbled and braced himself for the pain of having his nose reset. 

 

It didn’t help. Tears sprang to his eyes the minute Kaidan touched his nose, and was powerless to keep them from rolling down his cheeks. The doctor gave him a sympathetic smile before wiping them away with a gauze pad. “Worst part’s over,” he assured. 

 

John closed his eyes, not wanting to muddy his image of the doctor’s handsome face with the memories of this torture. Kaidan’s fingers were warm and gentle against his cold skin, and he had to fight back a shiver. He lamented the fact that his breath probably smelled of eggs and coffee, but there was nothing he could do about it now. It wasn’t as if he could breathe through his nose at the moment. 

 

“There,” Kaidan said all too soon, and John blinked his eyes open in surprise. “All done.” The doctor walked over to the desk and dropped the bloody tissues and gloves into the garbage can before washing his hands again. When he returned, he presented Shepard with a candy cane. “For being such a good patient.” 

 

John laughed, plucking the candy out of the doctor’s fingers. “Thanks.” 

 

“My pleasure, though… I’m very sorry about causing the accident in the first place.”

 

“Don’t worry about it,” John said. “It wasn’t your fault. I wasn’t watching where I was going either, but thanks for the patch job.” 

 

“It was the least I could do.” 

 

Kaidan was close, their eyes locked in a sort of trance. John began to feel self conscious of his swollen, purple nose. “Well, I’d better get out of your hair.” 

 

“Oh… yeah… I… it was nice to have met you. Maybe we’ll run into each other again sometime… well, maybe not literally run into…”

 

Shepard chuckled. “Yeah, that would be bad… the literally running into each other, not the figurative…. You know what, I should go. Thanks again.” 

 

He practically ran out the door, away from the beautiful doctor who made his brain forget how to put words into sentences. The snow was coming down harder, and John sighed as he trudged toward the bus stop, not wanting to spend the extra money on a cab. It would be a long time before he forgot those eyes. 

 

**

 

The only thing Kaidan could think of as he waited in line for his usual morning coffee and slice of pumpkin bread - it was the season after all; the rest of the year, he went for the lemon loaf - were the shockingly blue eyes of one John Shepard. He wished he’d thought to get more information out of the man. He could have at least asked for his phone number. Or address. Or what he did for a living for Christ’s sake. Or a date…

 

Shit, he really wished for a do over.  _ Want to go out for drinks sometime? _ It wouldn’t have been so hard. Or,  _ lets run away and get married, and spend the rest of our lives having wild, insatiable sex on this exam table. _ Okay… maybe it was a good thing he’d just kept his damned mouth shut. 

 

Still, those eyes, that smile, that deep rich voice that sounded so seductive even through his broken nose, he couldn’t get them out of his mind. When it was his turn, he mindlessly ordered his usual, the girl behind the register giving him a shy smile that he was too preoccupied to notice. 

 

Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a wallet and opened it to retrieve his debit card. The face of John Shepard stared up at him from his ID photo. His heart stuck in his throat as he grinned idiotically at it. Those sapphire eyes held the same vibrant spark in the photo that they did in person. 

 

The panic set in a moment later, and he began frantically patting his pockets looking for his own wallet. “Shit,” he muttered, then looked at the girl behind the counter whose smile had lost much of its luster. “Uh… this isn’t my wallet,” he tried to explain. 

 

“Well, whose is it?” the girl asked impatiently.

 

“John’s,” he said automatically, not realizing that she would have no earthly idea who he was talking about. “I uh… I’m sorry. I guess I’ll have to cancel my order. I’ve left the house without my wallet.”

 

The girl huffed in annoyance, but a man behind him spoke up and offered to pay for his order, bidding him a Merry Christmas and suggesting that he pay it forward the next chance he got. Kaidan thanked him, took his breakfast and wandered distractedly down the street. 

 

In his office, he sat behind his desk, staring at the ID of John Shepard and wondering what his next move should be. He didn’t really believe in luck or providence or even serendipity, but here he was with the address for last night’s mystery man in the palm of his hand. 

 

That couldn’t be coincidence, could it?

 

Coffee and pumpkin bread abandoned, Kaidan snatched up his coat and scarf, tucking John Shepard’s wallet into his pocket and raced toward the door. “Clear my schedule until lunchtime,” he shouted at his nurse and receptionist over his shoulder. 

 

**

 

John’s apartment was on the fourth floor of a modest building in one of the nicer parts of the city. It was a humble place for someone who’d struck Kaidan as being a humble man.

 

“You barely said two words to him all night, idiot,” he chastised himself as he stepped out of the elevator on the fourth floor. Unit N7 was on the left, and he rapped his knuckles against the door a few times then rocked back onto his heels to wait. 

 

There was no answer.

 

“Dammit! Doesn’t this just figure?” He knocked again, louder this time, and was rewarded with a thumping sound followed by a string of muffled curses. 

 

“What is it?” John Shepard flung the door open, standing there in nothing but a pair of pajama bottoms. His buzz cut hair looked exactly the same as it had the night before, and the bruising from his broken nose had spread, turning a nasty looking dark purple. The naked torso in front of him, however, was what made Kaidan’s head spin for a moment before he found his voice. 

 

“Hey… sorry to wake you.” 

 

John’s eyes widened, and he looked like he’d just seen a ghost. He blinked then rubbed a hand over his face and looked again. “Kaidan?” he asked as though his eyes were not to be believed. 

 

“I uh… I have your wallet.” 

 

John looked down at Kaidan’s outstretched hand as though it contained a viper, then flicked his gaze back up to Kaidan’s face.

 

“I think you may have mine,” he said. 

 

“Oh… Oohhh… Damn, yeah… we must have mixed them up after the, uh… mix up last night.” He rolled his eyes, and Kaidan wasn’t sure if that was directed toward himself or what. “Let me… let me just go check my pants from last night. Haven’t been anywhere yet… obviously.” 

 

He waved Kaidan in and detoured through the kitchen to switch the coffee pot on. It burbled and hissed to life and immediately filled the small apartment with its rich aroma. “Take a seat on the couch if you want,” John hollered from the other room, and Kaidan wandered into the suggested space, attention caught by the framed photographs on the wall. 

 

Most of them were landscapes or landmarks. The few that contained people didn’t appear to be family or friends. The faces were all so varied, like someone had caught their expressions at the most important moment of their lives. Some were happy, exuding joy that made Kaidan’s heart flutter, others were heartrendingly sad. 

 

He intently studied the face of a young woman wearing an Indian sari and kneeling in the dirt. Tears streamed down her cheeks, mouth open in a silent scream preserved for all the ages of the earth to come. Whatever event had preceded that photograph had irrevocably changed the woman’s life. Kaidan was utterly convinced of the fact. 

 

“Coffee?” 

 

He jumped, whirling around to face John and nearly knocked the proffered mug out of the man’s hand. Some sloshed over John’s fingers and he muttered a curse as he set it down and wiped them clean on his pants. 

 

“Sorry,” Kaidan murmured.

 

John just chuckled and offered him the cup again. “No problem. I guess I did sneak up on you.” He blew across the surface of the steaming mug before taking a tiny sip. “Oh, here’s your wallet.” 

 

Kaidan accepted it, taking a small sip of his own coffee and offering his thanks. “These photographs are amazing,” he said, turning his attention back toward them. 

 

“Thank you,” John said, offering no further commentary. 

 

“You took them?” 

 

“Yeah. I’m a photojournalist,” he admitted. “I’ve been working in the Middle East, stationed with a marine unit over there to document their lives while they’re deployed. Just got back stateside about a month ago and decided to relocate. It’s nice to have a change of scenery once in awhile.” 

 

“Oh? Where are you from?”

 

“East coast. Little town in Maine that no one’s ever heard of,” he said with a grin. “Nothing like Vancouver.” 

 

Kaidan chuckled at that, then glanced around the apartment, taking note of the distinct lack of Christmas ornamentation of any sort. “You don’t celebrate Christmas?” 

 

“I do… when I’m home,” John sighed. “My family’s traveling to Europe for Christmas - mom, step-dad, and sister. Figured I’d just hang around here, see what Vancouver has to offer.” 

 

“Probably not much for a world class traveler such as yourself,” Kaidan confessed. “Still, there are some neat places to go and see.” 

 

“Maybe I need a tour guide.” John fixed him with an intense stare that made things like thinking and breathing difficult. 

 

“I’d love to show you around,” he said at last. 

 

“Great!”

 

**

 

They spent some time together every day for the next week. John found he looked forward to seeing Vancouver through Kaidan’s eyes. His camera accompanied them on every outing, and he took at least as many photos of Kaidan as he did of the city.

 

They walked side by side through a park, a frozen rink full of ice skaters the seasonal centerpiece. “Want to give it a shot?” Kaidan asked, gesturing toward the ice. 

 

“I don’t know. Not sure I want a busted ass to match my nose,” John quipped with a grin. It was feeling better, but still hurt, and somehow it looked worse now than it had the day after. 

 

Kaidan laughed, but urged him until he relented. 

 

“I haven’t done skating of any kind since I was a kid,” Shepard confessed as he stood on shaky legs. 

 

“I’ll help you,” Kaidan promised, gripping John’s hand and dragging him onto the ice. 

 

Their first couple of laps were wobbly, and John nearly ended on his rear more than once. Every time, Kaidan was there to steady him, grabbing him by the arms and keeping him upright. Soon they were skating in a steady circle. Kaidan moved backwards, holding onto John’s forearms for support. Shepard kept a death grip on Kaidan, eyes watching his feet the entire time. 

 

“Look at me,” Kaidan said. “Trust me.” 

 

His breath was stilted when John’s blue gaze met his. They really were the prettiest eyes he’d ever seen. John’s cheeks were rosy from the cold, eyes shining brightly. The tiniest smile curled his lips, and Kaidan was struck with a sudden urge to kiss the man. Instead, he moved them slowly around the circle, eyes locked with those sapphire gems the entire time. John began to relax, letting Kaidan dictate the pace and rhythm, and soon, he was gliding along the ice like he’d been born to do it. 

 

“Are you a natural at everything you try?” he teased. 

 

“Far from it,” John assured him. “But when you have a good teacher…”

 

Kaidan blushed at the compliment and the little wink John shot him. “Thanks.”

 

In time, John removed himself from Kaidan’s grasp, but still held lightly to his hand. Then they were moving around the rink freely, laughing at silly jokes and at themselves. Kaidan took a chance and squeezed John’s hand tighter, pleased when the man returned the pressure. 

 

They managed to make it off the rink without hurting themselves or anyone else, and decided that lunch was in order. After returning the skates, John took Kaidan’s hand once more as they wandered lazily toward a sandwich shop that was a local favorite. Kaidan tried not to act like a giddy schoolgirl. 

 

“Some friends of mine are having a Christmas party tonight,” Kaidan told him in between bites of his turkey Reuben. “No gifts or anything. I was wondering if you’d want to go.” 

 

John stopped fiddling with the chips on his plate and met Kaidan’s gaze. His lips tipped up into a lopsided smirk that Kaidan had already become well accustomed to seeing. “Are you asking me out on a date, Dr. Alenko?” 

 

“Uh… well… well, yeah. Yeah, I guess I am.” 

 

“I’d love to,” John said softly, and Kaidan felt the tense anticipation slip from his shoulders. 

 

**

 

The doorbell rang precisely at six forty five. Exactly the time Kaidan said he would be there. John should have known. He was still hopping around with one leg in his pants, and cursed at himself as he tried to finish dressing as he rushed toward the door. 

 

His collar was still turned up and hanging open when he jerked the door back, and Kaidan just laughed. “You always answer the door half dressed, or is that just for me?” 

 

John rolled his eyes and laughed. “Come on in. I’ll only be a minute.” 

 

Kaidan was perusing the photos on the wall again when John came out. He didn’t miss the once over the man gave him, grinning as he saw Kaidan swallow. “Ready?” 

 

“Uh, yeah, just…” Kaidan stepped closer and pulled a little bundle of greenery out of his pocket, dangling it over John’s head with a grin. “Thought maybe we could get this out of the way before the party.” 

 

Returning the smile, John leaned forward, pressing his lips gently to Kaidan’s. The older man pulled him closer with a hand at the nape of his neck, and John went willingly as the kiss deepened, shooting fire through his veins. They parted for air, John barely able to get a lungful before Kaidan was attacking his lips once more. Kaidan’s back hitting the wall with a thud, rattling one of the photographs off its hook, finally brought them back to reality. 

 

“Whoa,” John whispered as Kaidan chuckled. 

 

“Been wanting to do that for awhile now,” Kaidan admitted. 

 

“I’m glad you did… though I’m going to have a hard time thinking of anything else at the party tonight.”

 

Kaidan laughed and grabbed his date by the hand. “Let’s go!” 

 

It was snowing when they stepped onto the street, falling in large, fluffy pieces around them, just as it had the night they’d met. John stopped Kaidan before he could hail a cab and pulled him into another slow, sweet kiss. 

 

“I’m glad we met, Kaidan.” 

 

“Even though I broke your nose?” 

 

“Yeah,” John chuckled. 

 

“I’m glad we met, too.” 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to [estalfaed](https://estalfaed.tumblr.com) for the beta work and for coming up with the title! You're incredible my friend, and I love you, too!! <3
> 
> Find me on tumblr: [ellebeedarling](https://ellebeedarling.tumblr.com)
> 
> Happy Holidays,   
> Elle


End file.
